Microbiology Services

The Public Health Wales Microbiology Division provides Microbiology Services from laboratories in Aberystwyth, Cardiff (University Hospital of Wales and Llandough sites), Carmarthenshire (Carmarthen and Llanelli sites), North Wales (Bangor, Rhyl and Wrexham) and Swansea Bay area (Swansea and Bridgend).

This includes:

laboratory diagnostic services to hospitals and general practioners
leadership of hospital infection control programmes
involvement in regional and national surveillance programmes
assistance to Health Protection Teams in relation to outbreaks and community infection control

In addition to these general functions Public Health Wales laboratories provide all-Wales and UK specialist and reference facilities.

These are:

Food, Water and Environmental (FWE) Services (Bangor, Cardiff, Carmarthen and Rhyl)
Welsh Haemophilus Unit (Bangor)
Giardia and Cyclospora (Swansea and Aberystwyth)
Welsh Infectious Diseases Molecular Diagnostics Unit (Cardiff and Swansea)
Wales Specialist Virology Centre (Cardiff)
Wales Centre for Mycobacteria (Cardiff)
UK Anaerobe Reference Unit (UKARU) (Cardiff)
Cryptosporidium Reference Laboratory (Swansea)
National Toxoplasma Reference Unit (Swansea)
Specialist Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Unit (SACU) (Cardiff)
Mycology Regional Reference Unit (Cardiff)
Pathogen Genomics Unit PenGU (Cardiff & Swansea)

Tell us how we’re doing:

We need your feedback on our Microbiology services to ensure we are providing the most suitable service for our users and, as a result, the patients. Please let us know what we are doing well as well as where you feel we could make improvements by completing our Microbiology User Feedback survey.

If a particular member of staff or department deserve recognition, please leave them a compliment.

Please note: the Microbiology user feedback survey is designed to be completed by healthcare personnel and not patients or members of the public. If you are a patient and would like to feedback about Microbiology services, please discuss this with your clinical team or follow the link below for feedback & complaints.

Voicing a concern or complaint allows us to investigate and learn from your experiences and improve the services we offer here in Public Health Wales. Details of how to make a complaint can be found here: https://phw.nhs.wales/feedback-and-complaints/